Magnificent Bastard / Film J To N

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

J - L

• Jackie Brown: Jackie Brown herself is a middle-aged flight attendant who makes a living by helping criminals smuggle in cash and more over the border. Caught by the ATF and used as a plant to help bring down gun runner Ordell Robbie, Jackie comes up with a scheme to win over her bail bondsman Max Cherry and steal Ordell's money. Reporting to the ATF that he is only moving $50,000, Jackie instead arranges so that she can take the other $500,000 with plants and clever misdirection before setting Ordell up for death when he tries to come for his money in retribution.
• Jack Ryan films: Of the people encountered by the famed CIA Analyst, these two have proven to be the smartest and most efficient:
  • The Hunt for Red October: Captain Marko Ramius is a genius Soviet naval tactician known as the "Vilnius Schoolmaster" for having trained many USSR naval officers. Becoming disillusioned with the Soviet cause after the death of his wife, Ramius uses the launch of the Red October prototype nuclear submarine and its silent "caterpillar drive" to defect to the United States with the rest of his officer staff after murdering The Political Officer by making it look an accident and assuring the crew about the "secret nature" of their mission. Ramius' tactical insight allows him to evade both the Soviet and US navies until he can make contact with Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst who managed to decipher Ramius' real intentions. After evacuating the crew by faking a reactor meltdown and disposing of a GRU stowaway, Ramius manages to turn an enemy Soviet submarine's torpedo against itself and successfully defects with the Red October in tow.
  • Clear and Present Danger: John Clark is a C.I.A. operative recruited by National Security Advisor James Cutter and CIA Deputy Director of Operations Bob Ritter to carry out Operation RECIPROCITY against the Colombian drug cartels. Forming a small team of highly trained soldiers, Clark leads them in sabotaging the cartels’ operations while keeping their involvement secret, notably killing most of the leadership with a fake car bomb. Clark also helps Dr. Jack Ryan uncover a massive money-laundering scheme the cartels are involved in. Later Cutter and Ritter cut off communications between Clark and his men, resulting in them being captured or killed, and put the blame on Ryan to get Clark to murder him. Clark then kidnaps Ryan and tells Ritter that he’s killed Ryan, realizing that he was lying when he doesn’t restore communications. Clark then teams up with Ryan and, along with a helicopter pilot Clark recruits and the one soldier that escaped, pulls off a four-man mission to rescue the captured soldiers from a heavily guarded base and kill the man responsible for the death of his men.
• Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday: Creighton Duke is a mysterious Bounty Hunter specializing in serial killers, who has a personal vendetta against Jason Voorhees. Duke is the only one to possess knowledge on Jason including; Jason's ability to Body Surf via his soul-demon, how he can resurrect himself through someone of the Voorhees bloodline, and how one of the Voorhees bloodline could permanently kill him. Tracking down Jason's half-sister, Diana, Duke attempts to recruit her, but his attempts are unsuccessful and lands him in jail, where Duke would meet Steven Freeman, the ex-husband of Diana's daughter, Jessica. Seeing Steven wishes to take Jason down, Duke provides information, at the price of breaking all of Steven's fingers. Aware that Diane was killed by Jason, Duke escapes from his jail cell and kidnaps, Jessica's baby daughter from Joey B.'s Diner, leaving a note for Jessica to come to the Voorhees house, where Duke returns the baby and gives Jessica a dagger that can kill Jason. When Jason attacks, while Duke himself is defeated by Jason, his efforts finally allow Steven and Jessica to kill Jason for good.
• Joe Kidd: The titular Joe Kidd is a former Bounty Hunter hired by corrupt landowner Frank Harlan to hunt down a group of revolutionary banditos led by Luis Chama. Though he initially refuses, Joe relents when a friend of his is attacked by Chama. After spending a large portion of the film aiding Harlan and his posse in the hunt for Chama, Joe is fed up with Harlan's sleazy nature when Harlan holds five of Chama's men hostage—threatening to kill them if Chama doesn't turn himself in—and cooks up a well thought-out plan to escape and rescue the hostages. Joe ends up starting a gunfight with Harlan and his men after being chased into town that ends with Joe outsmarting and shooting Harlan dead before delivering Chama to the local sheriff and riding out of town.
• Joshuu Sasori:
  • Nami "Matsu" Matsushima is a woman betrayed by her true love, a police detective named Sugimi. Sent in as bait for drug dealers, Nami was violently raped and sent to prison when she attacked Sugimi for it. Throughout the series, Nami is tormented by other inmates, lecherous guards, and a broken system, but remains unbroken the entire time while playing her enemies and allies against once another. Nami forms alliances, always repaying those who deal fairly with her, while brutally punishing those who do not. At the end of the first film, Nami manages to track down Sugimi and murders him, spending the rest of the series constantly playing and destroying those who get in her path.
  • Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion: Otsuka is a prisoner who assists Nami in her escape after she saved her from potential punishment. With a keen intellect that matches Nami’s own, Otsuka prevents Katagiri from assassinating Nami, and during a riot that sees Katagiri lead the torture of Nami by the prisoners, Otsuka frames Katagiri for supposedly trying to burn everybody alive to ensure Nami’s livelihood. Creating a massive distraction for Nami’s escape, Otsuka allows her to leave while she stays behind, ensuring her legacy as Nami’s most helpful ally.
• Josie: Josie Starks is a mysterious young woman who drifts into a sleepy Southern town. Attracting the attentions of ex-cop Hank and the delinquent Marcus, Josie plays them off against each other, playing the role of intermediary. Josie then gets both men into an isolated location and when Marcus pulls out a knife she knocks them both out and reveals to Hank that her father was an innocent man who was executed by Hank years ago. Josie has resolved to kill everyone responsible for her father's death, but because Hank showed remorse, she gives him a quick and painless death before framing Marcus to cover her tracks and continuing on her quest for vengeance.
• Joy Ride: The trucker known only as "Rusty Nail" is the victim of a cruel prank from Lewis and Fuller, setting him up to meet a nonexistent lover named "Candy Cane". Being denied an apology, a furious Rusty stalks them, killing an innocent trucker and eventually kidnaps Lewis's girlfriend Venna's friend Charlotte to draw them out, put them through a humiliating situation and lure them into a deathly trap. Even when they escape, Rusty uses the dead trucker's body as a substitute for his own to escape completely.
• Jumper: Griffin O'Conner is an experienced Jumper who has dedicated his life to eluding and killing Paladins, particularly Roland who killed his parents at a young age. Upon meeting fellow Jumper David Rice, who is pursued by Paladins, Griffin showcases his skill by effortlessly murdering the Paladins, before becoming the less experienced David's Cynical Mentor. Griffin immediately realizes when David compromises his base, knowing the Paladins possessed machines that kept a jump scar open. Engaging Roland, Griffin holds him off with a combination of his weapons and his Weaponized Teleportation, including throwing a bus at Roland, forcing Roland to flee back through the portal and Griffin trapping him back on the other side, planning to send a bomb through to kill the Paladins and anyone caught in the blast radius.
• Jupiter Ascending: Kalique Abrasax is the most level-headed of the three Abrasax siblings, and the most effective in accomplishing her goals. Upon learning of her psychotic brother Balem's aspiration to summon Jupiter Jones, their mother's genetic reincarnation, Kalique pays off his bounty hunters to instead collect her and to bring her to Kalique. Sacrificing humans for her business and eternal youth but constantly affable, Kalique politely explains Jupiter's situation to her, before Jupiter's bodyguard Caine arrives to protect her. When Caine arrives, Kalique lets the two go amicably and even notes that Jupiter leaving safely and claiming her title was what she wanted all along, completely claiming victory over her brothers and achieving all her goals through one stroke of brilliant planning.
• Jurassic Park franchise:
  • Original film: The Velociraptor alpha is a terrifyingly intelligent predator and one of the most dangerous dinosaurs in the park. Introduced killing one of the park's crew, the alpha killed all but two of her pack to assert her dominance, using her remaining pack to constantly check their old pen for flaws so they could make their escape. When the power finally goes out, the raptors bust out of their new pen and go on the hunt, with the alpha setting up a trap for Robert Muldoon when he tries to take them out. Learning how to open doors, the alpha and one of her pack bust into the visitor centre and relentlessly chase the heroes, nearly killing them were it not for the surprise interference of the Tyrannosaurus rex. The alpha and her pack are some of the most iconic dinosaurs in all of fiction, and stand as one of the most shining examples of surprisingly clever creatures in cinema.
  • The Lost World: Roland Tembo is a badass Great White Hunter who, having hunted the most dangerous animals on Earth, decides to culminate his career by taking down the greatest predator on Earth: a Tyrannosaurus rex buck. Acting as The Heavy for Peter Ludlow in the dinosaur hunting expedition and ensuring his incompetent, greedy boss stays well away from the operation, Tembo baits out a Tyrannosaurus couple by using its baby as bait. Even when a gaggle of strangers free the baby and confiscate his ammo, Tembo saves their lives and still manages to bag the adult Tyrannosaurus in the end. Arguably the sanest and most rational character in the movie by the end, when Ludlow tries to offer Tembo a job as cheap compensation for the loss of Tembo's friends, Tembo politely tells Ludlow to shove it.
  • Dominion: Soyona Santos is a Black Market trader specializing in selling dinosaurs, particularly Atrociraptors for numerous things, including as weapons or for dogfights. Hired by Biosyn's CEO Dr. Lewis Dodgson, Santos makes the arrangements for both Maisie Lockwood and the young raptor Beta to be captured and then brought to Malta before then being sent from there to Dodgson at Biosyn shortly after. Upon a deal being busted up by a sting, Santos shows no signs of panic and uses a laser-pointer so that specially-trained raptors will attack the agents surrounding her and targets Claire Dearing and Barry Sembène to prevent them from pursuing her too. While giving up info after being interrogated with a taser, Santos, while in the process of being arrested, stealthily sics the raptors on Owen Grady as he's escaping.
• Kate:
  • Kate herself was raised since childhood to be a master assassin and now wants to retire after having to kill in front of a child. Lethally poisoned, Kate spends her final twenty four hours hunting for her alleged killer Kijima, even taking his niece Ani captive to lure him out. Discovering her handler Varrick is the true culprit and surviving his attempt to kill her, Kate allies with her former enemy and his Yakuza forces to decimate Varrick's splinter faction, painfully killing him and rescuing Ani before Varrick can mold her into his next killing machine, all while being moments from death.
  • Kijima is an aged, wise Yakuza crime boss who quickly turns an attempted coup against him to his advantage. After escaping assassination at the hands of Kate, Kijima deduces that his advisor Renji and Kate's employer Varrick are behind the attempt on his life, and confronts Kate with the information to turn her against Varrick and sway her to his side. Working with Kate, Kijima marches on Renji and Varrick's forces, wiping them all out while Kijima personally challenges Renji to a sword duel, one that Kijima wins in mere seconds, firmly establishing the man's badass leadership as he eliminates all rivals.
• Kelly's Heroes: Kelly is a respected lieutenant who was demoted to private and put in a Canon Fodder unit after being made The Scapegoat for a superior's mistake. He is introduced capturing a German colonel behind enemy lines and taking him back for interrogation. Upon finding gold on the colonel, Kelly force feeds him alcohol to make him tipsy and talkative, learning there is $14 million in looted gold in a nearby bank. He ignores orders to keep this quiet and recrutis his platoonmates and armored support to join him in a heist to rob the bank. He misleads all of his partners about how heavily guarded the bank is but does show some fond loyalty toward them. Despite heavy odds, Kelly leads his men to victory while suffering few casualties through a combination of coordinated strikes at the German soldiers and being willing to boldly and successfully bargain with the last guards and offer them a bribe. He and his allies then escape with the gold before the arrival of their Pointy-Haired Boss and the advancing U.S Army, while leaving behind an insulting message.
• Kill Bill: Beatrix Kiddo fights many devious opponents, but the following stand out with charm matching their skill:
  • Beatrix Kiddo herself, aka "Black Mamba" and "the Bride", is the deadliest and most favored assassin of Bill and would later become his lover and pregnant with his child. Not wanting the baby raised in Bill's world, she fled to live a quiet life until Bill led a massacre of her wedding reception. Later waking up from a coma, she began a revenge fueled rampage against Bill and the Vipers and used extensive information gathering, brutal pragmatism in combat, and her skills with a katana to kill them all one by one. Even when caught in a trap by Budd, Bill's brother, Beatrix clawed her way out of a buried coffin and walked barefoot through the desert back to his trailer to pluck the eye out of her hated rival Elle Driver. In the emotional climax, she discovers Bill was raising her child and regretfully kills him to attain her vengeance and raise their daughter in peace.
  • Bill himself, aka "Snakecharmer", is the retired leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. After his lover Beatrix leaves him and becomes engaged to another man while pregnant, Bill massacres the wedding party and leaves Beatrix in a coma. Deciding to leave her alive in the hospital, he took their child she gave birth to while unconscious and raised her as a loving father. Finally confronted by Beatrix, the three share a family night together of a life that could have been, while Bill also leads Beatrix into a false sense of security, shooting her with truth serum to have her admit to him and herself why she left him. Accepting defeat with grace, Bill reassures Beatrix that she's his favourite person, never stopping loving her and regretting what he did, telling her "I... overreacted."
  • Vol. 1: O-Ren Ishii, aka "Cottonmouth" of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, is the most ambitious of Bill's former underlings. Starting her career at age eleven by avenging her parents' death, O-Ren went on to be one of the world's most dangerous women. After leaving Bill's employ following the wedding massacre, O-Ren travelled to Japan, conquering the criminal underworld and rising to the top of the Yakuza, feared and respected by the bosses of the families. Confronted by Beatrix, O-Ren sent her underlings to fight her before engaging Beatrix in single combat, admitting respect for her opponent as the fight closed. The most successful of Bill's former associates, O-Ren was one of Beatrix's toughest fights.
  • Vol. 2: Karen Kim is an intimidating assassin who tried to kill Beatrix just after she discovered she was pregnant. Karen disguises herself as a hospitality manager at Beatrix's hotel to get her guard down and nearly kills her with a surprise blast her shotgun. Blocking a thrown dagger with the butt of her weapon, Karen reaches a standoff with her target and learns that she is pregnant. Proving to have some humanity, Karen calls off the hit and leaves with a final congratulations.
• Kill Chain: "Araña" is a calm, stoic mastermind who worked as a mercenary for Franco and an unnamed organization. Tasked with eliminating a shipment from a rival organization, when they found it full of trafficked children, they decided to free them. After Franco is killed by his organization when seeking revenge for the death of his daughter at the hands of dirty cops, Araña decided to take down the organization himself. Employing Sanchez, he has him betray his partner, before setting him up to be killed by the cops. After Renata, a former prostitute, finds him her, Araña convinces her to talk to her ex-pimp while he poisons her right hand and threatens the pimp at gunpoint. After setting up Renata to kill the pimp, Araña pays a visit to Sanchez's dying partner telling him that even though he didn't kill those girls he didn't stop Sanchez before finishing him off, getting everything he wanted in the end.
• The Killer (2023): The titular "Killer" is a methodical, exacting hitman who may not be as put-together as he initially seems, but hides a devious mind for murder and improvisation behind his facade of normalcy. A successful assassin considered one of the best in his field, the Killer always has a backup plan and an escape route laid out for his hits. When a bystander accidentally interferes with his latest hit, the Killer is targeted by fellow assassins to punish him for the screw-up; though initially willing to simply evade his pursuers, the Killer becomes deadset on revenge when his beloved girlfriend is wounded by his foes. Hunting down everyone responsible for his girlfriend's assault, the Killer uses stealth, combat prowess and genre savviness to take out all of them, adapting on the fly when things get sticky. The Killer ultimately has his revenge and retires in luxury with his girlfriend, accepting that he's now become "one of the many" who simply enjoy life to its fullest.
• Kill the Irishman:
  • Danny Greene is an immensely charismatic Irishman who claws his way from meager beginnings to become one of the most beloved, yet feared, mobsters in Cleveland. Danny uses manipulation as much as brute force to shove out a corrupt Union boss and take his place, raking in dough as he partners with various crime bosses to form further Unions under their thumbs. Always taking time to be charitable to neighbors, friends and even strangers, Danny is nonetheless ruthless in his endeavors as he assassinates those who snitch on him and is willing to personally brutalize anyone who dares step up to face him. Though eventually taken down by a coalition of mobsters and their top assassin, Danny dies with a smile on his face and a respectful smirk to his killer, going down in history as a community icon.
  • Ray Ferritto is a stylish, ruthless mob hitman sent to finally kill Danny Greene. Ferrito proves himself to be an expert at manipulating people in order to take out Greene's allies, from manipulating one into coming close by pretending to be Greene in order to kill him to faking a truce to lure another so they can be out in the open and killed via a bomb. Ultimately, Ferrito bugs Greene's apartment to learn his future whereabouts and, knowing that Greene will check his car for a bomb, has the bomb planted in the car next to his so he won't notice. Ferrito ends the film tipping his hat to Greene before he kills him as a show of Villain Respect and goes down in history as the man who killed Danny Greene.
• Killing Them Softly: Jackie Cogan is a cynical, yet highly efficient hitman who works for the Mafia. After three thieves rob a poker game run by Markie Trattman, Jackie is appointed to find those responsible and to eliminate them. Despite knowing that Trattman had nothing to do with the robbery, Jackie has the man senselessly beaten before he personally assassinates him to keep the other criminals in line. Jackie hires Mickey, another hitman, to try and kill one of the targets, but when he realizes he's in no shape to do his job, he orchestrates his arrest by hiring a prostitute to get into a fight with him. After convincing Frankie, one of the thieves, to give up his partner-in-crime, Jackie successfully kills his target before later murdering Frankie to tie up any loose ends.
• Kind Hearts and Coronets: Louis Mazzini is the son of the Duke Luis D'Ascoyne of Chalfort's daughter, who was disowned by her family for marrying a poor Italian singer, dooming them to a life of poverty. When the Duke refuses her final wish to be buried with her family, Louis decides to murder off the D'Ascoyne family both to avenge her and gain the title he believes to be rightfully his. Meticulously researching his targets in advance, and quickly learning all the necessary skills, Louis works his way through the eight D'Ascyones in his way. Exploiting their flaws and habits and constantly adapting to any surprises, he ensures that his murders are mistaken for tragic accidents, whilst also charming his way into social circles and rapidly progressing through his professional life. Finally confronting the Duke Louis captures him in one of his own illegal mantraps. Revealing the truth he calls him out for abandoning his mother for marrying for love, hurrying his speech so not to unnecessarily prolong his victims suffering, then stages his death as a Hunting "Accident". Sauve, cultured and always impeccably polite, despite his humble upbringing Louis proved himself to be in every way a true gentleman, even indulging the wishes of his own hangman when it appeared to be the end.
• The King: William Gascoigne, the King's Justice, is one of King Henry V's closest advisers. Seeking to ensure Henry gains the "peace" he desires so bad, Gascoigne fakes an insulting gift from the King of France and later helps to manufacture a plot against Henry with an assassination attempt that makes Henry believe that the French are trying to murder him. Upon Henry realizing the truth, Gascoigne feigns innocence for a time, only to finally tell Henry he has done nothing more than Henry wished: to bring peace through war and to see Henry made into a great king.
• Kingsman films:
  • The Secret Service: Richmond Valentine is the Genre Savvy tech mogul who uses this good publicity to convince the general mass to get his SIM chips, while persuading the world's 1% into supporting his cause, implanting them SIM chips so he can track their every move, making sure they don't betray him. It's revealed that these SIM chips are connected to his satellites that when activated, would cause people to kill each other; he tests its capabilities on a racist church community with only a Kingsman surviving the onslaught, before killing the Kingsman himself. After the full-scale of Valentine's plan is revealed he launnches a global frequency that leads to general masses killing each other off with only Valentine and his followers surviving. Despite attempting to cause massive loss of life, it is done so out of Valentine's belief of saving the world and the rest of humanity and is genuinely affable to allies and enemies alike, even asking Eggsy if he's going to make an incredibly lame pun before going out with a smirk.
  • The Golden Circle: "Agent Whiskey", real name Jack Daniels, is a high-ranking member of the American Statesman agency. After helping Gary "Eggsy" Unwin plant a tracker on a suspect through a sexual act, Whiskey then saves Harry Hart from rude guys in a bar by beating them all up single-handedly and later on takes out a bunch of armed gunmen all on his own too with minimal use of his signature lasso, even using his surroundings to his advantage. Taking advantage of both the situation and of Poppy Adams's massive poisoning of all her drug users with a deadly virus as part of a ransom scheme, Whiskey makes it look like he destroyed the antidote vial they retrieved completely by accident. Later confronting, threatening and fighting Eggsy and Harry, Whiskey reveals he intends for all drug users to die not for the potential profit Statesman would achieve in their sales, but because his own pregnant wife was senselessly murdered by two meth users years ago.
• Krampus: Krampus is a dark holiday spirit determined to teach a harsh lesson to anyone and everyone who has lost faith in Christmas. Krampus uses his magics, his army of unique toys, and various frightening ploys to scare his targets into showing guilt for their actions and selflessness in helping others. Imparting his lessons to drunk mall Santas, guilt-ridden cops and elitist jerks to make them all better people, Krampus's latest victims are the Engel family members, snatching them all away one by one through baiting and trickery. His ultimate target being young Max: Krampus gets the boy to sacrifice himself to spare his family and then, like all of his past hauntings, restores the Engels to a happy Christmas morning, with assurances that he'll be watching them and will return to torment them if they ever lose their Christmas spirit again.
• Labyrinth: Jareth the Goblin King is a charismatic, manipulative goblin. First summoned by heroine Sarah, Jareth kidnaps her baby brother to lure her to him, spending the film manipulating the rest of the cast and tricking Sarah into eating an enchanted peach to make her more susceptible to his influence. Jareth shows a genuine care for Sarah, even if he is not above ruthlessly manipulating her and everyone else in the film, but never loses his sense of charm, flamboyance and friendliness, who even seems to care for the child he kidnaps upon her sister's rash wish.
• L.A. Confidential (1997): Captain Dudley Smith is a charming and witty but utterly corrupt police officer. Aiming to take control of all criminal activity after the fall of Mickey Cohen leaves behind a power vacuum, Dudley kills or chases away rival criminal opposition in the city. When his corrupt officer underling Dick Stensland goes behind his back in an attempt to sell stolen heroin, Dudley has Stensland shot in a public diner to mask the killing. Framing a trio of rapist criminals for the massacre, Dudley attempts to have the rapists killed during arrest to avoid them talking. Even when the criminals are instead arrested, Dudley manages to orchestrate their escape to have them killed by well-meaning Lieutenant Edmund Exley. Manipulating the entire police department, when the heroic officers begin closing in on him, Dudley has Edmund photographed sleeping with officer Bud White's girlfriend in an attempt to have Bud kill Edmund and begins murdering his own criminal business partners to tie up loose ends. When Edmund holds him at gunpoint, Dudley faces him with no fear and when Edmund stays his hand, simply tries to talk Edmund into joining him as he restarts his criminal empire, coming within an inch of victory and embodying both the charm and corruption that a police badge can conceal.
• The Lady Eve: The film centers around a trio of charming card-playing con artists that Charles Pike winds up encountering. However, two members of the gang especially stand out.
  • Eugenia "Jean" Harrington is manipulative high-class figure, as well as part of a trio of card-playing con artists. Prior to the film, Jean had charmed various wealthy men with her beauty and lured them into a sense of trust, only to steal large amounts of money from them. Coming across Charles Pike, Jean charms him as well and nearly robs him too until she feels genuine romantic feelings for Charles, to the point where she protects him from her swindling father. When Charles finds out the truth about Jean and breaks up with her, Jean creates an alter ego as the English woman "Lady Eve Sidwich", spends weeks with Charles so he'd fall in love with and eventually marry "Eve", and then tell him about her past suitors so he'd leave her. Jean is about to request a large settlement from Pike's lawyers in exchange for a divorce but suddenly realizes she still loves Charles and manages to reunite with him and reconcile as she officially gives up her criminal ways for good.
  • Colonel Harry Harrington is Jean's equally cunning and charming father. A skilled member of his card-playing trio, Harry is shown to have morals and standards as he truly loves and respects his daughter, and goes by his motto, "be crooked, but never common" and has swindled various rich men out of their money, by cheating in card games where they bet money. When meeting Charles Pike, he acts like a father figure and intentionally loses a card game to him, as a means to gain his trust and fleece him later. When Jean considers going straight, he keeps his cool and subtlety tries to continue stealing from Charles via a card game. He even has Charles make out the check for his winnings of $32,000, and seemingly rips the check up in front of Jean, only to reveal later in the film that he somehow managed to hide it away and had it with him.
• Land of the Dead: "Big Daddy" is a surprisingly intelligent Stench hellbent on toppling Fiddler's Green and avenging his fallen undead brethren. Leading a massive army of Stenches, Big Daddy uses his unusual deductive reasoning ability to lead his battalion to several victories, teaching himself and his fellow undead new skills to aid them in the future, culminating in him breaching Pittsburgh's defenses by proving to his colleagues that they can pass through water. After a bloody massacre resulting in the death of Fiddler's Green's leadership, Big Daddy and his fellow Stenches willingly spare the survivors of the assault, having already fulfilled their mission and choosing to march in peace.
• Land of the Lost: The t-rex known as Grumpy is a cunning predator who shows no favoritism to humans despite having some understanding of sentience. He becomes a Super-Persistent Predator determined to kill Dr. Rick Marshall after Marshall harshly mocks Grumpy's intelligence and says his brain is the size of a walnut. Grumpy dumps a melon-sized walnut outside of the cave the humans are hiding in to emphasize his understanding of that comment and anger over it, but he also shows patience while stalking his prey, avoiding dangerous areas and hiding too far away for the humans to notice him. He can see through deceptions meant to avoid him, and forms a brief, coordinated Enemy Mine alliance with a rival dinosaur to try to trap and kill Rick. He finally swallows Rick, but lets him live after Rick clears up an internal obstruction in his stomach, with Grumpy then acting as The Big Guy for the humans when they fight a group of sinister aliens and developing a mutual respect with Rick before they part ways.
• Last Action Hero: Benedict, though starting out as Tony Vivaldi's self-proclaimed lackey, quickly proves himself to be the true menace of the film. An exceptional hitman whose marksmanship is only rivaled by his dry wit, Benedict is the real mover and shaker of Vivaldi's operations, and, briskly picking up on the fact that young Danny knows far more about him than he should, Benedict ultimately gets his hands on Danny's magic ticket, enabling him to betray Vivaldi and travel from the Jack Slater film series into the real world. Both disgusted and intrigued by the lack of empathy "real" people display towards their fellow man, Benedict guns down a mechanic to test his theory on this, and, upon receiving no comeuppance, concocts his master plan to bring forth every movie villain to the real world, simply because "in THIS world the bad guys can WIN!" When confronted by Slater, Benedict fatally wounds the thus-far nigh-invulnerable hero with a simple yet brilliant tactic: tricking him into the open by making Slater believe Benedict's gun is has clicked empty, when truthfully, he "just left one chamber empty" before gunning Jack down.
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1959): Julia, mistress of Consul Ascanius, was dragged from her home and people after being enslaved by Rome. Upon witnessing the deaths of her family, Julia dedicated herself to revenge against the Romans. Secretly funding the attackers led by the monstrous Praetorian Gallinus, Julia has wealthy Roman families killed and their riches stolen, diverting suspicion by blaming the Christians and exacerbating tensions. Julia kills Ascanius to frame the hero Glaucus, despite her clear respect for him, with her final plot being to fund an army to finally challenge Rome itself.
• Last Man Standing (1996): The man known as "John Smith" stops in the border town of Jericho, housing two feuding bootleggers. After his car is destroyed by Doyle's gang Smith coincidentally stares at Felina, Doyle's woman and kills Doyle's top gun before being hired by Doyle's rival, Strozzi. Smith works for Strozzi, charms and sleeps with Strozzi's mistress Lucy, while simultaneously working within Doyle's ranks, playing both sides for profit. After Lucy is hurt, Smith cuts all losses, telling Doyle that Strozzi has taken Felina hostage after Smith freed her, leading to Strozzi being killed. Hickey finds out about Smith's ploy, tortures him, and Smith lures in and kills Doyle and Hickey before leaving Jericho. Using his ruthless wit, John Smith is a man of focus who plays all sides, turning obsessions into leverage while using his wit for a quick buck.
• Last Night in Soho: Sandie, known in present as Alexandra Collins, was an aspiring singer whose music was stolen from her by the callous pimp Jack. Having killed Jack to defend herself, Sandie lures out the abusive men who had raped and hurt her, killing them all and hiding their bodies under her property. Expertly luring many to their deaths, the elderly Sandie wins the heroine Ellie Turner's trust and later almost kills her and her boyfriend John to protect her secrets. Succumbing to remorse, Sandie chooses to die rather than face the courts and at the end is shown to still watch over Ellie as a spirit, free from bondage and her past at last.
• Last of the Mohicans: The Huron warrior Magua was enslaved by the Mohawks thanks to the British Colonel Munro. Seeking revenge, Magua won over the Mohawk, becoming their blood brother until he could rejoin the Huron, only to discover his wife, thinking him dead, had married another after their children died. Filled with rage, Magua bides his time, leading a British patrol to its doom and later causes the fall of Munro's fort before massacring his followers and carving Munro's heart out before seeking to kill his daughters. When he faces Nathaniel Bumpo's adoptive brother Uncas, Magua shows his skill by killing him with no effort whatsoever, repeatedly showing why he is one of the most dangerous men on the frontier.
• The Last Seduction: Bridget Gregory is a highly intelligent, manipulative sociopath who convinces her husband Clay to sell pharmaceutical cocaine to drug dealers before skipping town with their ill-gotten gains. Bridget quickly starts a new life in a small town, repeatedly fending off the private investigators her husband sends after her, one by killing him off in a car crash after tricking him into taking off his seatbelt with the suggestion of a sexual liason, and the other by framing the man as a pedophile. Bridget seduces the well-meaning but naive Mike, then slowly convinces him to kill her husband after messing with his mind and digging up embarassing secrets from Mike's past. When Mike realizes that Bridget is trying to set him up, she kills Clay personally before taunting Mike to rape her, implicating him as a home invader responsible for her own crimes and later disposing of any evidence that might have proved Mike's innocence.
• The Last Temptation of Christ: Satan, the Archangel, is a manipulative entity conspiring to prevent Jesus Christ's sacrifice and plunge mankind into eternal damnation. Quietly observing Christ throughout his life, Satan attempts to appeal to Christ's human nature by offering him power and a chance at a normal life. When Christ is crucified, Satan takes the form of an angel and removes him from the cross after claiming that he wasn't truly the Messiah. Convincing Christ to marry Mary Magdalene as well as to pursue other women when she abruptly dies, Satan nearly succeeds at dismantling God's divine plan as the elderly Christ approached death.
• Law Abiding Citizen: Clyde Shelton, after losing his family to the depraved Clarence Darby, schemes for years, studying law and the city to murder Darby himself, and gets arrested, conniving to pull off a series of attacks against all he holds responsible for Darby's freedom. Seeing the judicial system as inherently corrupt, Shelton holds the city in a grip of terror, making his own demands that most are powerless against, to make his statements against what he views as a corrupt system. The good guys assume Shelton saying he has all kinds of connections to hitmen who successfully kill most of his targets on his behalf is true, but in reality, he's escaping his cell and doing it all himself. Even at the end, when he realizes his life is about to end, Shelton maintains sympathy by dying in a dignified manner, only staring at a bracelet his beloved daughter made him before the end.
• Lawrence of Arabia:
  • Prince Faisal, the leader of the Arab Revolt, is a calm and brilliant man who intends to unite the fractious Arab tribes into a nation while overthrowing the Ottomans. Launching a series of attacks and keeping pace with numerically superior forces, Faisal takes advantage of eponymous protagonist T. E. Lawrence's skill and mental state to use him for his rebellion. Stoking the flames of nationalism to unite the tribes under his banner, Faisal is able to even keep pace with the British in political negotiations before deciding Lawrence has outlived his use to him.
  • Mr. Dryden is an official of the Arab Bureau, using his wit and apparent reasonability to cover up his plans to lay claim to Arabia. Having sent T. E. Lawrence into Arabia to serve as a spy, Dryden makes use of Lawrence's growing instability and status as military leader to push him into greater acts of warring against the Turks. Orchestrating an agreement between England and France to split Arabia once the Turks are out, Dryden ensures the Arabs don't receive proper armaments to become independent once the war is over, and correctly deduces that the Arab clans' conflicting ideologies will prevent any united front once they drive out the Turks. Dryden then organizes a final deal with Faisal himself, splitting Arabia between their forces while snarkng that all of the double dealing has left him wishing he had stayed home.
• Layer Cake: Eddie Temple is an English crimelord who has become a feared and renowned figure in the British underworld, establishing himself as a legitimate businessman and member of upper society while secretly running a criminal empire behind the scenes. Temple's lifelong associate Jimmy Price lost a large sum of money in a bad overseas investment, blaming Temple for it and attempted to have Temple's beloved daughter kidnapped to use her as a hostage. Temple quickly undercuts this scheme by revealing his findings about Jimmy being a police informant to Jimmy's young and ambitious cocaine manufacturer XXXX during a High-Altitude Interrogation, who kills him for the betrayal. Temple then cuts a deal with XXXX for a batch of ecstacy pills that were stolen on Jimmy's behalf from a group of Serbian gangsters, only to confiscate the drugs during the rendezvous and offering XXXX exclusive membership to a high-class social club instead. Temple is a ruthless gangster while at the same time being courteous, witty, and polite, reminding XXXX that it takes years of time and dedication to ascend the layer cake of life.
• Legend (1985): The Lord of Darkness seeks to erase all light from the world and usher in a realm of night he can rule forever. A surprisingly soulful, intelligent devil, Darkness uses dreams to influence mankind itself, introducing himself to Princess Lilli with sincerity and charm after he uses her innocence to have his goblin servitors bait a trap for the unicorns. Surprised at his own love for Lilli and her purity, Darkness uses his charisma and seductive persona to try to sway her to marry him and give in to darkness, even spending his last moments boasting that he lives on in every man and can never truly be vanquished.
• Letters from Iwo Jima: General Tadamichi Kuribayashi is an experienced officer in the Imperial Japanese Army who firmly believes in the principle of My Country, Right or Wrong. As a worldly Officer and a Gentleman who unlike many of his colleagues has actually visited the United States, Kuribayashi is firmly aware of the awesome American industrial and military strength and consigns himself to defending the island of Iwo Jima in a Last Stand. Kuribayashi's defensive tactics by utilizing Mount Suribachi's cave network and forbidding his soldiers from killing themselves or engaging in suicide attacks ends up causing disproportionately high casualties among the invaders. Fatally wounded after Kuribayashi and his last men charge the Americans, he instructs a peasant soldier he befriended during the battle with hiding his body from the enemy. Despite fighting for a losing genocidal empire, Kuribayashi retains an astonishing sense of dignity and military cunning.
• Let the Right One In: Eli is a vampire who, stuck in the body of a preteen, manipulates an older man into collecting blood for her. When he starts to yield less blood, Eli pretends to be injured and helpless so that she can feed off a stranger before draining her servant on his request and making it look like a suicide. At the same time, Eli befriends and falls in love with a troubled boy named Oskar, even managing to resist her hunger when he cuts himself. Eventually deciding to flee the area after being forced to kill somebody in her own home, she sticks around long enough to slaughter a group of bullies who had been tormenting Oskar, managing to convince him to leave with her.
• Let Us Prey: The mysterious and calculating stranger known only as Six—all but stated to be Satan himself—is portrayed in a more positive light than he usually is as a persecutor of the wicked. Making himself known by allowing himself to be hit by a drunk driver who recently ran over a woman, Six is arrested and brought to a police station where he shows the inmates and police officers alike their darkest secrets, giving them a chance to repent for their wrongdoings before claiming their souls when they fail. His discoveries cause a family murderer and a serial killer both to unravel, leading to the destruction of the police station and for him to be reunited with an officer he had saved from certain death years prior.
• Liberty Stands Still (2002): "Joe", real name Alex, is a former CIA agent who intends to raise awareness toward the McCloud Industries shady business practices after his daughter became a victim of gun violence manufactured by their company. Setting his sights on Liberty, wife of the CEO, Joe holds Liberty's affair partner hostage and has him lure Liberty to Central Park. Locking a signal to her cell, he has her shackle herself to a hot dog cart rigged with a time bomb. Using the incident to attract police officers and news reporters to the scene, he attempts to use the US senator's son, Bill's influence to debate the rights to bear arms, killing him after he refuses. Attracting Victor himself to the park, Joe kills Victor but lets Liberty go. Revealing the bomb was a fake, Joe kills himself, but not before releasing the recorded confessions he made about Liberty's stance against firearms all over the news.
• Lifeforce (1985): Space Girl is an intelligent alien predator whose kind feasts on human souls for nourishment. Assuming the form of a nubile young woman after probing the minds of the Churchill crew, she seduces Lt. Carlson to pilot the ship back to Earth while feeding on the rest of his crew. Once released on Earth, Space Girl leaves a trail of dead while staying several steps ahead of the heroes at every turn, leading them on a wild goose chase throughout lower England in an attempt to track down her current host body before she unleashes a Zombie Apocalypse upon London with her two male vampire consorts, decapitating the government before it can marshal an effective response by infecting the Prime Minister. At the end, she offers Carlson a chance to rule by her side, with even his Heroic Sacrifice to kill her not being able to prevent her from repowering the vampire hiveship with the souls of her many victims.
• Lift (2024): Cyrus Whittaker is the charming boss of a crew art thieves who steal art from those they believe deserve it. After a successful heist where Cyrus staged the abduction of the artist N8 to drive up the price of the NFT he sold them, Interpol uses the evidence from that to force Cyrus into a deal. For Interpol, Cyrus and his crew are tasked with stealing 10 tons of gold from Lars Jorgensen as he's transporting it to Zurich to pay the terrorist group Leviathan. Cyrus concocts a plan to redirect the flight to Cortina so Interpol can unload the gold there. While that succeeds he is taken hostage by Jorgensen's men, who steal Cyrus's plane to fly the gold to Jorgensen directly, Cyrus manages to defeat them and crashes the plane at Jorgensen's estate. While being held at gunpoint by Jorgensen, Cyrus records him murdering a member of Leviathan to get him arrested. Afterwards Cyrus reveals he had a second plan, where he had a crate of iron bars painted gold placed in the plane, allowing him to steal the real gold for his crew.
• The Lincoln Lawyer: Mickey Haller is a charming Amoral Attorney who happily defends the guilty and will employ any legal trick to get them cleared. After an attempted rape and murder, psychopath Louis Roulet sways Haller into defending him, whereupon Haller learns that not only is Roulet guilty, but he is responsible for murdering a previous client of Haller's pleaded guilty to. In order to stop Roulet while still satisfying legal ethics, Haller plants fake testimony in a perjuring jailhouse snitch so he can discredit him along with the other witnesses against Roulet, but ensures the police hear the testimony so they may arrest Roulet for the previous murder, winning the case while still bringing Roulet down. When Roulet goes after Haller's ex-wife and daughter, Haller ensures a group of bikers he knows are waiting for him, with the only instruction that Roulet end in "the hospital, not the morgue".
• The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane: Rynn Jacobs is a Minor Living Alone following the death of her terminally ill father. Determined to maintain her independence, Rynn is adept at coming up with lies on the spot to explain away her father's absence when questioned about it, and at one point has her boyfriend Mario disguise himself as her father in order to placate a suspicious police officer. When pedophile Frank Hallet attempts to use his mother's death to blackmail Rynn into a tryst, Rynn poisons him with cyanide, having laced her own cup of tea in anticipation that Frank would suspect her of poisoning his cup and demand she switch with him.
• Live! (2014): Shinsuke Kanazawa, one of the many people running the deadly triathlon, is actually a mole working for Yuichi Ayukawa to assure Naoto Tamura survives the race. Ultimately befriending Naoto during his time spent with him, Shinsuke disqualifies himself from the race upon getting Naoto and Akari to the end. Using his connections with Yuichi to help Naoto betray his boss and rescue his mother, Shinsuke ends the movie hoping to see Naoto again after his eventual release from jail.
• Loaded Guns: Nora Green is the mastermind behind a group collectively operating as an international drug lord called "the American". Using her day job as an air stewardess, Nora travels around the world with her allies to dismantle local drug cartels by pitting them against one another, regularly employing her sensuality and charm to manipulate people into doing what she wants. In her latest caper in Naples, Nora sends a threatening letter to one of the mob bosses, Silvera, as a seemingly oblivious messenger, hiding her true intentions even when his men brutally interrogate her. Her letter eventually drives Silvera paranoid enough to raid a shipment of drugs meant for a rival, sparking off a gang war between them. Developing a genuine fondness for her latest lover Manuel, Nora knocks him out to keep him out of the conflict. After stealing the drugs from Silvera's men, Nora bargains with the mob boss in exchange for a large sum of money, before tipping off the police about the impending gang war. By the end of the film, Nora escapes Naples with her allies and Manuel, having achieved everything she had set out to do.
• Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels: "Big" Chris is an enforcer and hired muscle to anyone willing to pay, renowned in the criminal world for not only his excellent success rate, but his honorable nature as well. Big Chris is hired by Harry "the Hatchet" to ensure his debtees, Eddie's group, pay up as the story starts, and Big Chris proceeds to not only swipe the cash from the Eddie, but also obtains two treasured rifles Harry has been hunting, all through nothing but precise timing and opportunity. Raising his son, "Little" Chris, in his ways to hopefully one day hand the "family business" over to the boy, Big Chris does anything he can to protect his son from outsiders, notably fooling the vicious Dog into lowering his guard before brutally killing him when he threatens Little Chris. After Harry is killed, Big Chris seizes the opportunity to swipe the man's fortune, set himself and his son up for life as kingpins themselves, then shows his respects to Eddie's group for their tenacity in facing Harry by letting them keep the priceless rifles.
• Logan Lucky: Jimmy Logan is a blue collar worker who, after being fired from his job at Charlotte Motor Speedway, concocts a plan to rob the speedway along with his siblings Clyde and Mellie. To this end he recruits incarcerated Demolitions Expert Joe Bang and his siblings Sam and Fish. Jimmy has Clyde get himself arrested and has Joe organize a riot that they use to cover their escape and eventual return to the prison. After stealing all of the money and escaping, Jimmy anonymously returns the cash Sam and Fish snuck out, causing the investigation to get called off early. He then reveals that Mellie had snuck out extra cash that he gives to everyone involved, as well as a local mobile clinic and a woman whose car he had damaged as part of the heist.
• Lone Star (1996): Buddy Deeds took over as Sheriff of Rio County after masterminding the coverup of the killing of his crooked predecessor Charlie Wade. A well-meaning but also self-interested man, Buddy brings prosperity to the county and diplomatically reducing racial tensions, while also ousting lakefront residents to claim the property for himself. Seen as racist by his son Sam for keeping him from dating a Mexican girl, in reality Buddy forces them apart for being Sam's half-sister born to Buddy's mistress.
• Looper: Both versions of Joe from the present and future are brilliant schemers.
  • The "Young" Joe from the year 2044 is a "Looper": an assassin who executes victims sent to him from the future. Upon the arrival of his future self, Joe is pursued by his own organization who wish to torture him to get to his older self. On the run, Joe eludes his enemies and meets the love of his life, Sara whose son Cid will grow to become a monster known as the Rainmaker. Opting to protect them, Joe ends up defeating his future self by fatally shooting himself, allowing Cid to have a chance for a normal life and saving Sara.
  • The "Old" Joe from the year 2074 lost his wife to the mysterious Rainmaker and travels back in time to kill the villain as a child before he can take over the criminal underworld. Returning to the past, Old Joe finds the Rainmaker as a boy named Cid and comes to blows with his younger self who has fallen in love with Cid's mother Sara. Easily dismantling the Kansas City mob who come for him, Old Joe tries to pay off his younger counterpart to leave him alone before trying to kill Cid, only being stopped by his younger self committing suicide to erase Old Joe from existence.
• Lord of War: Yuri Orlov is a quick-thinking, charismatic Arms Dealer who uses his "business" to change the course of entire nations while skillfully evading law enforcement. Regularly dealing with trigger-happy lunatics and ruthless warlords who Yuri faces down with guile and respect, Yuri earns his spot as the most influential, powerful black market operator in the underworld. Disguising his ships as merchant vessels, handing off hot product for free to be dismantled by curious natives, and always staying one step ahead of dogged Interpol agent Valentine, Yuri faces even the death of his brother and family's betrayal with stoic coolness. Reaffirming that his connections will ensure he is never brought to justice and his dealings will forever flourish, Yuri ends the film by restating the best lesson he has learned to keep himself successful: "never go to war, especially with yourself."
• The Lost Boys:
  • Max the video store owner is secretly the head vampire, and the "father" of the Lost Boys. Desiring to find a wife and a mother to his vampiric "boys," Max uses his charm and genuine politeness to enchant the recently divorced Lucy Emerson into going out with him while staying beneath suspicion. Instructing his Lost Boys to vampirize her children so that they can be a happy family, Max goes on multiple dates with her. When entering Lucy's home, Max ensures he is invited in, rendering him immune to tests which would reveal his vampiric nature. When tested and accused by Lucy's son Sam, he quickly and effortlessly spins a narrative that the boy is afraid Max will try to replace his father, discrediting him further. Taking Lucy for a date at his house, Max returns to hers to find the Lost Boys killed. Calmly lamenting the circumstances and their deaths, he reveals his true nature, never letting up his kind tone, and threatens Sam to ensure Lucy will agree to being turned and marrying him due to his genuine care for her, being stopped mere seconds from victory, and only by something he never could have predicted.
  • David is the leader of the vampire gang under his "father" and sire Max. A wild, brash youth with a calculating mind, David is the one who scouts out Michael and grows impressed with him. Tricking him into drinking Max's blood, David sways Michael to the dark side while showing him the true nature of vampirism. Upon the death of one of their gang, David lays siege to the home of the Emersons, still attempting to pull Michael into darkness during their final battle. In the comics, David returns, masterminding the slaughter of the vampire hunters of Santa Carla and ending with a vial of elder blood in victory.
• Lucky Number Slevin:
  • Slevin Kelevra was once just a normal kid when both his parents were murdered on the orders of two mob bosses, the Boss and the Rabbi, to make an example of his father for trying to place a bet on a fixed horse race. The contract killer sent to take care of Slevin, Mr. Goodkat, couldn't bring himself to kill Slevin and instead raised him to follow in his footsteps as an assassin. Slevin spent years plotting the demise of his parents' killers, and with Goodkat's help, killed the Boss' son and both bosses' book keepers to make them even more paranoid of each other in the aftermath of their broken partnership. Goodkat then kills Nick Fisher so Slevin can pose as Nick's friend and be taken to the bosses to settle Nick's outstanding debts to both men. Slevin makes himself appear harmless before later killing the Rabbi's son as well and faking his own death, then kidnapping both mob bosses and suffocating them to death after explaining his reasons for wanting revenge. Slevin demonstrates that a dish Best Served Cold requires real mastery of the Kansas City Shuffle.
  • Mr. Goodkat is a veteran, world-class assassin brought in to murder the child Henry since nobody else will take the job. Taking pity on Henry, Goodkat adopts him and raises him into the capable Slevin Kelevra to take revenge on the Boss and the Rabbi. Orchestrating the events of the film and playing the two crimelords against one another, Goodkat helps to bring them into Slevin's clutches for his final revenge, also attempting to murder Slevin's girlfriend Lindsey for taking his photo. Upon realizing Slevin had helped her fake her death, Goodkat shows a final mercy to both of them one more time before vanishing after his successful Kansas City Shuffle.

M - N

• Mad Max franchise:
  • The Road Warrior: The Lord Humungus is an eloquent warlord know as "The Warrior of the Wasteland" and "The Ayatollah of Rock'n'Rollah" who relentlessly scourges settlements in search of gasoline. A cunning mastermind, the Lord Humungus causes the overthrow of his enemies and repeatedly outdoes them, even using misdirection like offering the settlement safe passage and peace if they surrender the gasoline, only to reveal to his right-hand man Wez he plans to allow Wez to take his revenge for his lover's death as soon as they have what they want. The Lord Humungus also relies on intimidation tactics and shows himself to be shockingly well spoken, being one of the deadliest enemies in the Wasteland Max has to fight.
  • Beyond Thunderdome: Auntie Entity is the ruler of Bartertown. A harsh ruler trying to forge order from chaos who is locked in a struggle with the refinery owner Master, Entity keeps control via the Thunderdome with its gladiator combat and manipulates Max into challenging Master's champion Blaster before killing Blaster herself, usurping Master and exiling Max. Upon Max managing to save her enemies, Auntie Entity decides she respects him too much to kill him and releases him while she back heads to rebuild Bartertown.
  • Fury Road: Imperator Furiosa, once a ruthless raider and Imperator in service of the monstrous Immortan Joe, risks everything to escape his service and steals his prized wives to hurt her former master and tormentor. Betraying and killing her own War Boys to flee Joe's convoy, Furiosa eludes him with the help of Max to return to her old clan, the Vuvalini and their Green Place. Upon learning the Green Place no longer exists, she and Max opt to instead double back and take Immortan Joe's undefended citadel with Furiosa herself outwitting and killing the tyrant before presenting his corpse to claim control over the Citadel.
• Mad Money: Bridget Cardigan is a housewife forced to take a janitorial job at the Federal Reserve Bank to get her and her husband Don out of debt when he gets laid off. Bridget studies the processes and steps of when, where and how the out-of-print money is shredded before it's later replaced and hatches a plan to replace the lock to access the money and smuggle it out while also keeping the cameras from catching everything. She enlists co-workers Nina Brewster and Jackie Truman to help and get equal shares with her while also dialing in security guard Barry when he catches on to them and helping a blossoming romance with him and Nina. The team manages to operate uninterrupted for three years until Jackie's husband Bob makes an incompetent decision. Bridget then runs away with some of the money to avoid being arrested, hires her tax attorney neighbor to get them all off for both federal theft and tax evasion and playing to the bank manager's pride and months later reveals to both Nina and Jackie that she managed to still stash away a large amount of money for all of them.
• The Magnificent Seven (1960): Calvera is the dreaded but charming leader of a fierce bandit gang robbing settlements across Mexico. Regularly taking goods from one unnamed village, Calvera shoots one man dead for attacking him, having his scouts monitor the villagers and personally returns to check on the village after his scouts are killed by the seven gunmen. Confronting the heroes, Calvera offers them the chance to join him and when his forces are pushed back in combat, stations his underlings to fire on the village from afar. Cutting a deal with the scared villagers to betray the gunmen, Calvera offers to spare their lives should they agree to leave the village to him and his gang. When the gunmen heroically return, Calvera personally leads his forces against them, killing four of the seven and when mortally wounded himself, sombrely wonders why they would have returned to the place that betrayed them.
• Major Grom: Plague Doctor: Yulia Pchyolkina is a journalist and blogger who will do anything for a story. With the emergence of the Plague Doctor case, Yulia poses as a rape victim to steal police officer Igor Grom's documents on the killer and posts videos on her blog for a massive view count. Allying with Igor, Yulia shows her chops fighting back against the devotees of the Plague Doctor and even manages to break an arrested Igor out of prison before taking down the villain with a hidden tape recorder as he boasts of his crimes.
• The Maltese Falcon (1941):
  • Misanthropic detective Samuel "Sam" Spade is a ruthless operator caught in a web of betrayal, lies and murder by the brilliant criminal Kasper Gutman. Upon being roped into the hunt for the Falcon, Spade manages to outwit his captors, even faking being a foolish hothead to lull them into a sense of security. Later proposing a "fall guy", Spade has the criminals turn on one another and sell Gutman's supposedly beloved friend Wilmer out for the police. Upon being rid of Gutman, Spade works out that his lover Brigid O'Shaughnessy was the murderer of his partner Miles Archer and sees through her attempts to manipulate him, turning her over to the police while informing her not to be so sure he's "as crooked as I'm supposed to be," vowing to wait for her if she's out of jail and to remember her if she's hanged.
  • Kasper Gutman, the "Fat Man", is the Big Bad and an amiable, corpulent crime lord who has been pursuing the titular black bird for seventeen years without ever stopping. Ruthless to the point of murder but sincerely polite, Gutman opts for negotiation and bribery as opposed to the ineffective, brutish violence of his minions, stating "there are other methods of persuasion asides from killing and threatening to kill," patiently overwhelming the protagonist Sam Spade, drugging him, and remaining unflappably calm even as Spade gains the advantage. Gutman's drive is such that he's even willing to use hitman Wilmer as a fall guy for the murders so he can continue the search for the bird, and when he discovers the Maltese Falcon he receives is a fake, Gutman is shaken for all but a minute before he cheerfully laughs it off and decides to continue onto Istanbul, remaining no less persevering as he has for the previous seventeen years and even offering Spade the chance to come with him on the hunt.
• The Man from Nowhere:
  • Original film:
    • Cha Tae-sik, better known simply by "Mister", is a brilliant former covert operative for the South Korean Army. Befriending the young girl So-mi, Tae-sik becomes ferociously protective of her, outwitting and brutalizing both the police and criminals when So-mi is taken by the evil Man-seok and Jong-seok. Discovering the depths of the Seoks' organ trafficking operation involving children, Tae-sik proceeds to utterly decimate their empire, destroying their laboratory and killing Jong-seok before charging to Man-seok's hideout and slaughtering his guards, executing Man-seok himself even while shaken by the belief that So-mi was killed.
    • Lum Ramrowan is the taciturn and mysterious right-hand man to the brothers Man-seok and Jong-seok. An enforcer of their operation, Ramrowan assists in their rise to power and proves an exemplary opponent to Tae-sik when he seeks to recover the kidnapped So-mi. When given the order to send So-mi to the surgeon "500" to have her corneas harvested, Ramrowan instead kills 500 and passes his eyes as So-mi's to fool Man-seok and Tae-sik both, engaging the latter in a Duel to the Death before he can find So-mi is safe.
  • Rocky Handsome (2016 Bollywood remake):
    • Kabir Alawat, known once as "Rocky", now nicknamed "Handsome", is an unstoppable ex-special forces operative. When the child Naomi is captured by the evil Kevin and Luke Ferreria, Handsome works tirelessly to save her, massacring criminals and outwitting or even brutalizing cops, killing Luke and blowing up their meth lab. Even believing Naomi is dead, Handsome kills the remaining villains including Kevin before being reunited with her, sharing one hug before calmly being arrested.
    • The mysterious Attila is the noble, self-guided enforcer to the Ferreria brothers. Deeming Handsome a worthy adversary, Attila is also an expert operative able to track a wealthy fleeing mob boss and the only fighter intelligent enough to match Handsome. Growing fond of Naomi, Attila saves her life while tricking the older Ferreira into thinking she was killed and engaging Handsome in the final fight he desires.
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015):
  • Napoleon Solo is a charismatic, lovable Gentleman Thief turned the best agent in the American government, who works off his criminal debt by taking down threats far worse than himself, and all while lining his own pockets and having fun the whole way. Introduced outsmarting Russian superspy Illya Kuryakin using nothing but his surroundings and his own gadgets, Solo is afterwards begrudgingly teamed up with Kuryakin to take down the villainous Victoria Vinciguerra. Effortlessly seducing Victoria herself even amidst her suspicions and playfully trolling Kuryakin at every possible turn, Solo faces even drugging, capture, and torture at the hands of Nazis with wit and joviality. When Victoria seemingly escapes and has all but won, Solo uses his killing of her husband to bait the woman into stalling her escape in time for Solo's allies to kill her and end her scheme, after which Solo solidifies his budding friendship with Kuryakin by revealing he recovered the man's valued watch after it was lost.
  • Alexander Waverly is a British intelligence officer playing The Man Behind the Man to agent Gaby Teller, having her play the part of damsel-in-distress in order to get close to the Vinciguerras and Gaby's uncle Rudi. Alexander kicks back and relaxes for two-thirds of the movie as he has the KGB and the CIA compete and do the bulk of the legwork for him while he stays in the shadows, having Gaby feed him back information and then having her seemingly betray Solo and Kuryakin to the clutches of the enemy so she can infiltrate the Vinciguerras. Admitting he's played both Solo and Kurykain like fiddles when forced to come clean with nothing more than a calm smile, Waverly is so charismatic that he manages to convince both the KGB and the CIA into relinquishing to him their best agents, all so he can set up his own organization he promptly dubs "U.N.C.L.E."
• Man in the Iron Mask: Aramis is the secret leader of the Jesuit revolutionaries opposing the tyrannical King Louis XIV. With deep guilt against having taken Louis' good-hearted twin Philippe and locking him in the iron mask, Aramis later liberates Philippe with a plot to replace Louis as a good king and fulfill the oaths of the Musketeers. Luring his old friends to his plots, Aramis performs the switch and later helps to return to rescue the recaptured Philippe. Recognizing his own legend to the younger Musketeers, Aramis comes up with a plan to charge them to impress them so they will not bring themselves to fire on the legends.
• Man on Fire (2004): John Creasy is an alcoholic ex-CIA agent who gets hired by the Ramos family to be a bodyguard for their young daughter Pita. After growing attached to Pita, Creasy is shot and she is kidnapped and seemingly killed when a ransom drop off goes wrong. Seeking revenge for her death, Creasy begins searching for those responsible in spite of his horrible injuries. With reporter Mariana Guerrero’s aid, Creasy tortures and murders his way through both the kidnappers and the members of La Hermandad who ruined the drop off, rescuing another kidnapped girl along the way. When he discovers that Pita’s father ordered her kidnapping in order to pay off his debts, Creasy forces him to admit his guilt to his wife, and leaves him a gun to kill himself with. Eventually discovering the identity of the kidnappers’ leader, Daniel Sanchez, Creasy holds his family hostage in order to find where Daniel is. Daniel then reveals that Pita is actually alive and Creasy agrees to turn himself over in exchange for Pita, reuniting with her and then passing on from his wounds before Daniel can get to him.
• Margin Call: John Tuld is the English-American billionaire CEO of a major US bank who quickly cuts through the office politics when apprised of the possible bankruptcy of the firm because of its over-reliance on risky CDO products. Tuld ruthlessly initiates a real estate market crash by spreading the toxic assets through the rest of the economy in a fire sale, motivating his in-house salesmen with massive bonuses and bribing the analyst who originally stumbled onto the crisis before he was let go the same day to keep him quiet. Tuld's charisma and persuasion of the rest of his staff allows his firm to stay afloat at the end of day, as he starts planning his next move to somehow profit from the crisis.
• Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: The Creature is the creation of Victor Frankenstein who, having been mistreated by everyone, seeks revenge on his creator for giving him a life he didn't want. Killing Victor's brother William and framing Justine for the act in order to get to him, the creature asks him to build him a companion. When Victor & his wife Elizabeth leave to try and get away, the creature tracks them down while evading the police and murders Elizabeth. When Victor reanimates her, the creature manages to win her over to his side before she kills herself after realizing what's happened to her. After Victor dies, the creature mourns him before lighting a fire, killing him as well as burning Victor's body.
• The Mask (1994 film): The Mask himself is the jolly and zany alter-ego of Stanley Ipkiss whom he turns into whenever he puts on the Mask of Loki. Throughout the film, the Mask performs whatever act he wants to, said acts usually being one’s that end up benefiting Stanley due to them usually being things that wind up proving as solutions to his circumstances that he winded up in. Along the way, he outwits whatever foes he comes across using his charm as a form of manipulation and trickery while also committing a few crimes here and there and at the same time having moments of heroism like saving a casino and the people within from being blown up, all while managing to be a ladies’ man through charming Tina Carlyle, getting a kiss from her after finishing his dance and helping Stanley get another from her at the end of the film and maintaining tons of funny moments throughout.
• The Mask of Zorro: Don Rafael Montero is the corrupt governor of California and Zorro's arch-nemesis. Luring Zorro out by threatening to execute three innocent men, Montero is later forced to flee during the Mexican war of Independence, but not before discovering Zorro's true identity as Diego de la Vega. After Diego's wife is killed in the conflict, Montero sends Diego to prison and takes his baby daughter Elena for Montero's own, raising her for the next twenty years. Returning to California and winning over the people with his natural charisma, Montero intends to buy the land from General Santa Anna to craft his own Republic. Montero, however, intends to do this with 'El Dorado,' a mine he runs via slave labor that is on Santa Anna's own land, paying him with his own gold. During his final battle with his old nemesis Diego, Montero even takes Elena hostage for an advantage, before revealing he could never harm her, just before shooting Diego.
• The Masque of the Red Death: The Red Death himself infects an old woman to deliver a vow to her village that the tyranny of Prince Prospero is at its end, spreading the plague as she goes to enhance the fear of the Red Death and draw all the nobles to the sadistic Prospero's manor. Gathering them together, the Red Death exposes himself to Prospero and takes him and all his revelers with the plague, sparing six innocents as a form of mercy before reuniting with his fellow brothers, having secured his "illimitable dominion" over the land.
• Master and Commander: The French Captain of the deadly Acheron prowls the waters, preying on any British vessels he encounters to aid in the war effort for Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte. Engaging with the forces of Captain Jack Aubrey, the French Captain proves himself a skilled match for the HMS Surprise. When the Acheron is bested, the Captain changes places with another man to fake being a doctor and organize a "surrender" so he can eventually take the ship back from the British in a clever ambush.
• Master of the World: The brilliant Jean Robur believes in peace through strength. In his power flying machine, Robur launches attacks on key spots in the world to disable military capabilities and force a lasting armistice through the world, while being a charming and charismatic leader to his crew. Throughout the film, Robur constantly remains a step ahead, hellbent on enforcing his ideals on the world and coming close to victory before the heroes disable his ship. Ordering his men to flee, they instead choose to face the end with him, which he spends reading aloud a passage from the bible concerning world peace.
• The Matrix: The Oracle is a mysterious sentient program responsible for the third iteration of the Matrix. For five generations, she acted as an ally to the redpills to find "the One" and give them The Prophecy, which led them to believe they would save humanity. In reality, the Oracle was luring the One to the Architect, who blackmails the One into entering the Source and saving the humans plugged into the Matrix, at the cost of Zion's destruction. The Oracle decides a different course of action for Neo, the sixth One, introducing romance into the equation to make him attached to humanity, while assisting Neo to defeat Agent Smith, which would inevitably achieve peace between humanity and the Machines as she had intended.
• Mayhem: Derek Cho is an employee working for the corrupt TSC law firm. Fired over a case he had no involvement in and exposed to the ID-7 virus, Derek tries to demand his job back from the CEO, John Towers. When Towers sends his guards to imprison Derek and inadvertently kills one of his friends, Derek opts to simply kill Towers and anyone standing in his path along with Melanie Cross, knowing anyone under the virus' influence can't be prosecuted for murder. With their quick thinking and pragmatic fighting skills, Derek and Melanie assault or kill anyone in their path on the way to the top floor. When Irene Smythe refuses to give up the access code to Towers' office, Derek seemingly betrays Melanie and offers her to Irene to kill, later freeing Melanie the moment after Irene gives up her code so Melanie can kill Irene. Once Derek confronts Towers, he rejects his proposal to be his business partner and kills him before taking Towers' job long enough to void the foreclosure on Melanie's house.
• Mean Guns: Vincent Moon is a devious crime lord who has gathered a hundred criminals working for The Syndicate inside a newly built prison under false pretenses of holding a conference to discuss business, then exposing their duplicity and force them all to kill each other within a six-hour window with the promise of ten millon dollars to be split among the last three survivors. Moon himself effortlessly dispatches several criminals before retiring to a surveillance room to monitor the action while amusing himself with private games of chess. At the end, Moon organizes a four-way Quick Draw with the last three people left standing, only to remove the bullets from Lou's gun beforehand so Marcus will shoot him. Moon concedes that the Syndicate is planning on nobody leaving the prison alive, with Moon not caring one way or the other if he walks out the real victor or goes out in a Dying Moment of Awesome. Stylish, charismatic, and ruthless in equal measure, Moon establishes his bona fides as a master of organized crime.
• Mean Machine:
  • Charlie Sykes is a crime lord who is famous despite his decades-long incarceration and provides gambling tips to the prison governor while tricking him into bringing in narcotic-soaked newspapers for Sykes to sell. He resents Danny Meehan for throwing a football championship game due to both national pride and the money he lost on the event. Sykes however, refuses to rig a game between the guards and prisoners to favor the guards. He also tricks the governor into betting that the guards will win. He respects fellow long-serving convict Doc and tries to avenge his murder. He carries himself with style as the unofficial "owner" of the convict team and tries to keep Danny out of the game when it looks as if he's Throwing the Fight. The film ends with the warden heavily in Sykes' debt as a result of the convicts' victory and Sykes blowing up the governor's car to deter him from seeking revenge on the inmates who cost him the bet.
  • Massive is a smooth-talking suppler of contraband luxuries like chocolate and clean toilet paper. He approaches and befriends athlete turned inmate Danny Meehan, helping him navigate the prison society. He is the one to propose that Danny convince the warden to let the guards and cons play a football match against each other, Massive (the team’s manager) quickly sets out to profit off of and remains unflustered and committed even after being insulted and beaten by racist guards unhappy about his activities. He is polite and unyielding but contemptuous when a racist guard bullies him and starts beating him up. He helps plan out a campaign of dirty tricks for the final match that includes psychological warfare and smashing the bad knee of the racist guard who bullied him. The film ends with his power base and reputation among the prisoners secure as he happily joins the victory celebration.
• The Mechanic (1972): Arthur Bishop is a talented hitman who always finds the 'jelly spot' of his targets to eliminate them. In an assassination of 'Big' Harry McKenna, Bishop passes it off by natural causes by spooking Harry into a heart attack before smothering him, an intelligent gambit he tends to repeat on all his hits. When he takes Harry's ruthless son Steve under his wing, Bishop also foresees the betrayal by his employers and fights through it. At the end, when Steve thinks he's won by poisoning Bishop, Bishop is revealed to have seen it coming and sets up a final recording for Steve, along with a bomb activated by a tripwire.
• Mercury Rising: Peter Burrell is a former soldier whose death was faked so he could become a government assassin. Burrell is assigned by Lt. Col. Nicholas Kudrow from the NSA to kill autistic 9-year-old Simon Lynch for reading the government code "Mercury" and kills Simon's parents in pursuit of him after being let into the house. Burrell then stages the scene as a murder-suicide when forced to depart before police arrive and then tries to later isolate Simon in the hospital and get to him, only stopped by Art Jeffries in the process. Burrell then helps cover up his colleague Shayes's killing at Jeffries's hands, takes out two more targets as a means of protecting Kudrow's interests and advises Kudrow on dealing with things briskly while presenting a valuable phone call recording. Burrell also shows his tactical expertise both when nearly engaging Jeffries in a public firefight and also when unleashing heavy gunfire on FBI agents trying to interfere with the mission as well.
• Michael Clayton:
  • Michael Clayton himself is a devious and ruthless "fixer" for the law firm Kenner, Bach and Ledeen, who has used his connections and problem solving to handle the dirtier aspects of the business for years. Dispatched by his firm to reign in fellow attorney Arthur Edens, Michael learns about U-North's corruption from Arthur and, when Arthur is assassinated by U-North, Michael begins working to expose the company. He follows clues left behind by Arthur to piece together U-North's dispersal of a lethal carcinogenic chemical, and threatens to expose it. Needing cash to pay off a debt for his brother, Michael extorts hush money from KBL and stays silent until U-North executive Karen Crowder orders him assassinated. Evading the attempted murder, Michael fakes his death long enough to ambush Karen, trick her into confessing her crimes, and reveal he was wearing a wire the whole time that he uses to expose U-North to the police once and for all.
  • Mr. Verne and Mr. Iker are a pair of Consummate Professional mercenaries hired by U-North to clean up evidence of its crimes. They stake out the home of the conspiracy theorist Arthur Edens, take note of his medications and bug his phone to spy on him and learn that he has proof of U-North's illegal activities. On Karen Crowder's orders Verne and Iker quickly and efficiently assassinate Arthur to silence his probing, framing it as a suicide by medication overdose. Verne and Iker then set their sights on Michael Clayton, stalking and learning more information from him before calling the cops on Michael to disrupt his investigations. Verne and Iker nearly kill Michael as well, his life saved only by sheer coincidence as the hitmen exit the film with no visible consequences.
• Mile 22: Li Noor is a Deep Cover Agent from Indocarr working on the behalf of Russia. Through meditative training and careful memorization of a cover story, Li Noor fools a polygraph and offers information on caches of cesium along with a disc drive that only he can open, refusing to give the password until he is in safe hands before taking out a team of assassins while Chained to a Bed. As US task force Overwatch is dogged by Indocarr agents on the way to a safe airstrip, Li Noor helps James Silva's team evade the agents, sticking his neck out to help them multiple times. Once on a safe plane, Li Noor reveals that the whole operation was a trap for the Russian government to locate Overwatch's computer crew and decimate them for Silva's execution of a Russian General's son earlier in the film, proving himself indispensable to every faction he works for.
• Miller's Crossing: Tom Reagan is the right hand man to Leo O'Bannon, an Irish-American mobster, but it's clear who has the brains in the operation. Tom is a duplicitous alcoholic who's sleeping with Leo's fiancee and spends the movie double-crossing everyone he meets, regardless of the damage Tom suffers in the process. Then, at the end, it turns out the whole movie was a Zero-Approval Gambit on Tom's part. Everything he did, he did for Leo in the most unscrupulous way possible. He manipulates Leo's enemies into killing each other, having Leo's greatest rival murder his own terrifying enforcer Eddie Dane when Dane is distracted before leading said rival to his own death. Tom then personally murders his devious former friend, the smug Bernie Bernbaum to ensure Leo remains firmly in power.
• Minority Report: Lamar Burgess is the director and founder of the Precrime program, and is dedicated to expanding the program no matter the cost. In the past when Precrime was threatened by Anne Lively, Burgess hired a man to kill her, stopped the murder using Precrime, then killed her himself to ensure that the Precrime image of him killing her was dismissed as an "echo" of the first attempt. When John Anderton came close to solving Anne's murder, Lamar hired a man to pretend to be the murderer of Anderton's son so Anderton would be driven to murder him and be arrested by Precrime. When Federal Agent Danny Witwer catches on to him, Burgess promptly murders him, knowing that the system being deactivated due to Anderton's actions will allow him to get away with it. Burgess' plan nearly succeeds, as he sees Anderton arrested and Precrime is adopted nationwide before he's exposed. When faced with the impossible choice of either killing Anderton and going to prison or letting him live and discredit Precrime, Burgess manages to go out on his own terms by killing himself instead.
• The Misfits (2021): Richard Pace is a master thief who hopes to one day retire from the crime game to spend time with his daughter Hope. Escaping numerous prisons while even teaching Hope in the ways of stealing, upon being recruited by the Misfits to help them steal gold from Schultz’s prison in Abu Dhabi, Pace allows terrorist leader Abu Hirawa’s gardener to be executed in order to steal the prison’s blueprints. Crafting a heist that involves disguises, misdirection, and Pace giving every prisoner extreme food poisoning to distract the guards, upon acquiring the gold, Pace melts it all down in the shape of a sculpture, sneakily getting the golden art piece out while having some of his men lure Schultz away from the prison. Deciding not to retire, Pace instead helps donate the gold to UNICEF, willing to join the Misfits in whatever scheme they’ve conjured up next.
• Mission: Impossible Film Series: These are the most cunning and intricate of foes Ethan Hunt and the IMF have ever faced:
  • First film: "Max" is an Arms Dealer who's an expert not only at keeping her identity a secret to the point that no one knew she was a woman, but in turning American agents to her side as well. For two years, Max employs a treacherous IMF agent she calls "Job"—really Jim Phelps—and plans to pay him for achieving the NOC List which protects deep cover American agents. Knowing Job killed for her to get it, Max trusts Ethan about the list she actually got being a decoy—while also correctly suspecting that he was pretending to be Job—and then hires him to get the actual list for her. Nearly accessing it in the end only to be caught, Max at first starts planning legal strategies to get away with everything, but then quickly becomes interested when Eugene Kittridge offers her a deal instead.
  • Ghost Protocol: Kurt "Cobalt" Hendricks is a former specialist in nuclear endgame theory, who grew weary of treating the lives of millions like a game, and came to the conclusion that nuclear war is an inevitability. Hijacking the IMF's operation at the Kremlin, Hendricks frames the agency for bombing the landmark, raising tensions between Russia and the U.S. He forces a nuclear physicist to verify launch codes by kidnapping his family, then releases the family and kills the man to cover his tracks. Hendricks launches a missile at San Francisco in order to start a war so the survivors will declare a worldwide armistice. When Ethan Hunt comes close to stopping the missile, Hendricks leaps to his death attempting to ensure his plan succeeds, coming within a second of accomplishing his goals. Despite his destructive goal, Hendricks genuinely believes that Utopia Justifies the Means, and manages to play the IMF and the world's governments for fools all the while.
  • Fallout: The "White Widow"—real name Alanna Mitsopolis—is Max's grown daughter who took very well to arms dealing herself. Being a charitable individual while conducting her criminal activities as her mother also did, White Widow makes a deal with radical "John Lark"—August Walker—to deliver him the poisonous toxin orbs needed for his scheme to balance the world while also planning to help him spring the monstrous Solomon Lane from imprisonment too. When Ethan, pretending to be Lark, warns her that men are after her, White Widow trusts him to protect her while also taking out two of them herself with a blade as well. Expecting the collateral damage of cops while Lane is sprung as he's being transferred, White Widow calmly accepts the deaths of her own men as that instead while also clearly still caring too and insists Ethan deal with Ilsa Faust so she's not a problem. Revealed to have been an informant with full immunity for the American government all along, White Widow then helps to ensure a deal that has Lane-once recaptured and defeated—go back to face karma at the hands of MI6 for all he's done.
• Monster Killer (2011): Genjiro Mishima is an old, stoic cop who wishes to kill every monster in Tokyo in order to protect its citizens, willing to get his hands dirty to accomplish his goals. Hunting down vampire matriarch Masayo Mitarai for murdering his entire family, while hoping to also kill her half-vampire daughter Sayoko, Mishima has innocent witnesses killed in order to keep the monsters a secret from the public, even killing his own officers to keep the truth from spreading. Winning several fights against vampires despite his lack of powers, Mishima manipulates events so that his weakest officer Tetsuo leads him to Masayo’s lair, leading to him and his men massacring every vampire inside. Ready to kill the fully powered Sayoko after beating her, Mishima is only stopped by Tetsuo’s divine intervention, with Mishima using his final breath to praise Tetsuo for finally showing strength.
• The Monster Squad: Count Dracula is a wickedly smart vampire who seeks a mythical amulet to plunge the world in darkness and reign supreme. Hiding out for a century after Abraham Van Helsing’s botched attempt to defeat him, Dracula summons his gang of monsters to help him track down the amulet. Going under the name Alucard, Dracula’s able to find the amulet in the mansion he rented out, and when the Monster Squad storm his castle and steal it from him, Dracula retaliates by destroying their treehouse lair and unleashing his monsters all throughout town. Undeterred in his quest for the amulet, even after his plans have been foiled despite coming so close to achieving them, Dracula still tries to take Sean with him as he’s being sucked inside the wormhole.
• Morbius (2022): Dr. Michael Morbius himself is a doctor afflicted with a rare blood disease. Rising through the ranks of his field due to his brilliance, Morbius learns to splice Vampire Bat DNA with human DNA to cure himself. Curing his illness but afflicting himself with a deadly thirst for blood, Morbius terrorizes and rips apart a ship full of mercenaries before covering up the evidence and trying to evade law enforcement as he works on a cure. Upon discovering his similarly ill "brother" Milo had taken the cure, Morbius escapes prison and hunts him, constantly improvising and strategizing yet leaving him to his devices and retreating. Morbius uses his scientific genius to create an antibody that instantly kills vampires like himself, and masters his powers. Ruthlessly breaking a counterfeiter's fingers in his mission, Morbius ultimately confronts Milo and cleverly overwhelms him with a swarm of bats and injecting him with the antibody, killing him. Ultimately, Morbius defeats Milo thanks to his quick thinking and proceeds to evade justice despite considering himself a threat to the public.
• MouseHunt: The Mouse itself is a sentient, mischievous animal who has made his home in a dilapidated mansion which it fiercely defends against new arrivals. When the Smuntz brothers move in after inheriting it from their late father and discover it to potentially be worth millions, the Mouse repeatedly and effortlessly outwits the Smuntz's efforts to kill it, even disposing of a psychotic cat and a seasoned exterminator whom it tortures to insanity. After the house is destroyed, it decides to make peace with the Smuntzes and helps them restore their father's string factory to produce cheese products.
• Mr. Brooks: Mr. Earl Brooks, the eponymous Villain Protagonist, is the "Thumbprint Killer", a brilliant, charming murder addict who seeks to quench his thirst for blood. Attending AA meetings to cope with his addiction while simultaneously running a prospering box factory he built from the ground up, Brooks gives into his murderous inclinations now and then yet is never caught, having been killing for decades without suspicion. When the crooked, pathetic "Mr. Smith" tries to blackmail Brooks, Brooks twists Smith into his personal pawn and, after neatly tying up a variety of loose ends, effortlessly manipulates Mr. Smith to his death before pinning his crimes on him.
• Mulan Legend (2020): General Mian Ertu is a cunning Rouran warlord who desires to conquer the more fertile Wei territories in order to save his people from starvation. Mian expertly plants a mole in the Wei forces to capture the Wei Princess, planning to hold her for ransom in return for the ceding of ten Wei cities to him. After his brother's death at the hands of Fa Mulan, Mian plots revenge and concocts a cunning plan. Mian intentionally leaks false information of the princesses's whereabouts, knowing there's a guard who will pass it along to the heroes and allowing him to trap Mulan and get rid of the mole in one fell swoop. Mian is also an expert at battle who is able to hold his own against his foes through his tactics.
• The Mummy works:
  • 1932 film: Imhotep, the ancient Mummy, loved Princess Anck-Su-Namum in defiance of all tradition. When he sought to breach the barriers between life and death to recover her soul, he was damned and condemned until rising again. Taking on the elegant demeanor of pleasant Ardeth Bay, he manipulates the British into excavating tombs so he might find a way to restore his love, even if he must sacrifice a living woman to do so.
  • 1999 trilogy:
    • Ardeth Bay is the charismatic and determined leader of the Medjai and relentlessly protects Hamunaptra to prevent Imhotep from ever escaping his curse. Willing to lead massacres to keep Imhotep buried, his men wipe out Rick O'Connell's French Legion, stealthily ambush the river boat leading Rick's second expedition, and raids the party's base camp before warning them of "the Creature." When Imhotep is set freed, Ardeth becomes of fervent ally of Rick and helps to rescue Evie from sacrifice and give Rick the chance to put down their enemy. When Imhotep rises again to challenge the Scorpion King, Ardeth again helps the O'Connells by assisting on the journey to rescue their young son Alex and valiantly leading the Medjai to defeat the supposedly unstoppable Army of Anubis.
    • Imhotep, once the priest of Pharaoh Seti, murdered his king when he discovered the affair between Imhotep and his wife Anck-su-namun. Subjected to a horrific curse and rising anew thousands of years later, Imhotep easily eludes the heroes with his intelligence and powers to sacrifice heroine Evey to revive his true love. Returning years later with the aid of his dedicated order, Imhotep manipulates several thieves into opening his chest to restore his powers and hunts down the fabled Scorpion King to destroy him and gain the Army of Anubis, pretending to be the Scorpion King's servant to set him against Imhotep's nemesis Rick O'Connell. Even in his final moments, abandoned by his love when he needs her the most, Imhotep gives one last moment of respect and envy towards the O'Connells before accepting his final end.
• The Muppets:
  • The Great Muppet Caper: Nicky Holiday, masquerading as an irresponsible, parasitic playboy by day, is actually a sneaky, devious master thief. Nicky makes off with the jewels of his own sister Lady Holiday, pinning the deed on Miss Piggy to walk off scot-free. Later, he stages an elaborate, near-successful robbery to steal the Baseball Diamond, an effort only thwarted by the Muppets catching onto his schemes. Despite being a total Card-Carrying Villain, Nicky sincerely falls for Miss Piggy, takes his defeat with grace and ends the film with an apology to her.
  • Treasure Island: Long John Silver is a charming, bombastic pirate much like his book counterpart. After manipulating the mutiny against their captain by bringing in pirates to infiltrate the vessel, Silver plans to obtain the treasure of Captain Flint and also sway young Jim Hawkins to his side. Even when pressed against the wall by his crew's mutiny, Silver selflessly defends Jim, saying he was never lying about caring for the boy, and when held hostage by his captors, he manipulates his way back to control by threatening them with eternal damnation. As pleasant, charming and ruthless as his book counterpart, Silver is the utter pinnacle of what a professional pirate should be.
  • Most Wanted: Constantine, "the World's Most Dangerous Frog", fights and escapes from the Siberian Gulag he held a lot of power and authority in while setting other prisoners free and then setting explosives off too. Teamed with his underling Dominic Badguy/The Lemur, Constantine arranges to have Kermit sent to the prison in his place while pretending to be him with the Muppets. To divert attention and suspicion, Constantine not only allows the others free reign in their performances on their world tour, but also woos Miss Piggy and uses the performances as a means of distracting while he and Dominic commit a few robberies or thefts (leaving evidence to implicate the Muppets too). Constantine also plans to blow Piggy up at their wedding as a means of facilitating his own escape and manages to outsmart Dominic’s attempt to get the better of him while then trying to take Piggy as a hostage to get away in a helicopter.
• Murder Mystery: Juan Carlos Rivera is a family friend of the Quinces who secretly despises them, blaming them for his father losing his legs. Juan works with Grace to dispose of them. He convinces Grace to have Tobey kill Malcolm Quince, helping Grace forge a suicide note under Tobey's name after she killed him. Juan kills Sergai and poisons Cavendish's drink. Lacking the pettiness of his partner, Juan retained the charm and sympathy of the audience, all the while having everyone believe he's an Adorkable Latin man who doesn't know English.
• Mystery Road Johnno is a shady drug squad detective who Jay Swan repeatedly encounters during his investigation into the murder of a teenaged girl who robbed a dangerous drug ring. Jay invetigates but Johnno is quick to pick up on Jay's presence and engages him in conversation. These conversations leave Jay unsure whether Johnno is subtly threatening him and his daughter or is striving to rid the town of drugs as atonement for possibly causing a death in the past. In the climax, when Jay finds the missing drugs, Johnno tells him to take them to an area where the entire drug ring turns out to be waiting. However, when they try to kill Jay, Johnno fires on them from an ambush position while displaying great courage during a Sniper Duel. While it's unclear if he engineered the shootout and if his motives to do so were a desire to kill the criminals or take over their racket he himself is a part of, Johnno comes out of the affair looking heroic after wiping out the gangsters and saving Jay's life.
• The Name of the Rose: Jorge De Burgos is a blind, elder monk wholly convinced that mankind's salvation lies in complete obedience to God. Abhorring the ancient literature contained in the labyrinth beneath the abbey for what he perceives as its blasphemous humor, Jorge uses a book with a poisoned page to kill several monks who had knowledge of the secret library, which prompts the Abbey to call for the Jesuit William of Baskerville to investigate the mysterious deaths. When William eventually discovers the library, Jorge tries to trick William into touching the poisoned book, and when this fails, eats the poisoned pages himself and sets fire to the library, ensuring Christendom's supremacy for centuries to come.
• Near Dark: Jesse Hooker is a vampire possessed of a free spirit and a desire to just have with his makeshift "family." Having lived for decades by regularly draining the blood of countless victims—oftentimes assholes who instigate conflict in the first place—Jesse grants any new vampires the chance to become a part of his gang, offering Caleb this exact bargain. Continuing to run amok and use a combination of arrogant bravado and humble stealth to take down a variety of victims and threats, Jesse leads his "family" in an attempt to kidnap and turn Caleb's little sister as a favor to one of his gang. Jesse truly values the lives of cohorts and has a twisted sense of honor to make him all the more charming, going so far as to face death with nothing but a sneer and final attempt to pay Caleb back for betraying the gang.
• Need for Speed (2014): Tobey Marshall is a brilliant car mechanic who participates in illegal street races. After restoring a rare Ford Shelby Mustang for his rival Dino Brewster, an argument results in Dino, Tobey, and his friend Pete racing using Koenigsegg Agera's during which Dino causes Pete to fatally crash and frames Tobey for his death. Upon being released from prison, Tobey decides to use the Mustang in the prestigious De Leon street race, taking the owner's assistant, Julia, along with him for the cross country drive to California. Throughout the drive Tobey uses his smarts to evade the police, jumping over a three lane street to get invited to De Leon. Even when attacked while Julia is driving, Tobey is able to help her escape. When Dino wrecks the Mustang, Tobey goes to Anita, Dino's wife and Pete's sister, and gets Dino's Koenigsegg to use for the race. Ultimately Tobey is able to win the De Leon, saving Dino's life when he crashes, and uses the Koenigsegg to prove that Dino killed Pete, clearing his own name.
• New Dragon Gate Inn (1992): Jade is the charming, quick-tongued keeper of the titular inn and a devious woman always focuses on personal profit. Jade cheerfully uses her wiles to seduce greedy customers and turn them into meat buns to which she feeds her unknowing customers, who never notice due to how tasty the buns are. When Dong Chang soldiers intrude into her inn looking for some of her customers, Jade initially takes neither side and satisfies herself by playing tricks on the Dong Chang to divert their suspicions while simultaneously trying to extort the hero. Utterly above intimidation, when one of the Dong Chang soldiers tries to kill her Jade coolly and effortlessly throws him into the press with which she grinds people into meat buns.
• The New Guy (Theatrical Cut): Luther is an eccentric and chummy inmate, who befriends and mentors Gillespie “Dizzy” Harrison. After being pushed around in his old prison, Luther became a trouble maker until he got kicked out, re-establishing himself on top of the “Spiders” prison gang, which includes the prisons staff. Following Luther's advice, Dizzy becomes a trouble maker at his school to get expelled, after which Luther trains Dizzy in remaking his image for his new school, conscripting him into the Spider's; at one point Luther sets a climbing rope (and Dizzy himself) on fire to “motivate” him to climb. On Dizzy’s first day at his new school, Luther uses his connections to give Dizzy a dramatic entrance to give him an air of mystery. After Dizzy’s new success, Luther and the Spiders attend the schools' after party, during which two of Dizzy’s rivals try to expose and humiliate him; Luther intimidates the crowd into letting Dizzy explain himself, before leading everyone in beating up and humiliating the bullies to defend Dizzy.
• Wes Craven's New Nightmare: The fictionalized version of Wes Craven himself is a film director and storyteller with a singular purpose: to imprison the monstrous demon known as the Entity that takes the form of his creation Freddy Krueger. Understanding the nightmarish glee the Entity takes in slaughter, Wes also knows that the films are losing their capacity to contain the monster. Writing a new film script as "Freddy" begins to escape to the real world, Wes then delivers it to heroine Heather Langenkamp and arranges events so she will be forced to take on the role of Nancy, Freddy's greatest nemesis. Writing the events of the film and setting up the confrontation, Wes endangers Heather and her son Dylan while also ensuring Heather is strong enough to defeat "Freddy" and imprison the Entity with his newest film.
• The Night Comes for Us: The woman known only as "the Operator" is a mysterious hired gun assigned to eliminate the Six Seas. Introduced using darkness and a laser sight to kill off terrified goons, the Operator further proves her insane skills when she duels Ito, quickly marking her as the only person capable of defeating him in single combat. Twisting Ito to her goals and sending her after the Six Seas agent Arian, the Operator protects the young girl Reina from assassins Alma and Elena, using the womens' own weapons against them and taking them both on at once. The Operator ultimately outwits and kills Alma, Elena and an entire armed squad in their employ, saving Reina and returning her to Ito once Arian is dead, the Operator moving on to continue her mission to dismantle the Six Seas.
• The Night Flier: "Dwight Renfield" is the vampire behind the Night Flier murders. Flying from airport to airport draining his prey of blood, Dwight catches the attention of the arrogant Inside View tabloid reporter Richard Dees, attempting to force him off his trail before turning his focus to the elderly Sarche couple, appearing to Ellen Sarche as an old friend before killing her husband and claiming her life peacefully. Even as Dees follows him to the airport where Dwight had just slaughtered everyone inside, he gives Dees a final warning to leave him alone, seeing him as a "brother in blood", sending him to his own personal Hell and framing him for his crimes when he ignores his warning, leading to him being shot by the cops, and finally corrupting Dees' rival to take his place as the top Inside View reporter. Despite all his vicious slayings and bestial visage, Dwight remains charismatic to the very end while despising the monster he is forced to be.
• The Night of the Grizzly: Jed Curry is a rich man who covets Big Jim Cole’s land, which he once owned, so that his sons can have a ranch of their own to work. He puts up a gracious front in dealing with Cole, offering him a reasonable price for the ranch. He lambasts his sons for antagonizing Cole and refuses to bail them out of trouble at every turn. He shows a darker side by using his position as a bank shareholder to forcibly stop a policy of accepting personal items as collateral and giving Cole an unfair mortgage when he needs money to replace his stock after a bear attack. Curry posts to attract professional hunters to pursue a killer bear and keep amateur hunters from dying. When Cole seeks the bounty, Curry eggs on Cass Dowdy, a Bounty Hunter who hates Cole, by offering him cash and telling Cass that losing the reward will ruin Cole and cause his land to go to Curry. Even after Cole kills the bear and saves his ranch, Curry is no worse off than before due to his efforts to remain inside the law and keep his feud with Cole from becoming personal.
• Night Watch (Series): The film version of Zavulon lacks his original counterpart's racism. Zavulon leads the Dark Others, a magical organization that's been in a cold war with its Light counterpart for centuries. When Zavulon learns that a couple of powerful Great Others have been born, he reveals to one of them that his Light-aligned father, the work's hero Anton Gorodetsky, tried to have him aborted, convincing him to join the Dark. After training the boy for a couple years, Zavulon has Anton framed for murder by promising a vampire he'd make his son human if he did the killing. After killing the son for attacking him when his manipulations are exposed, Zavulon reveals that this was all a plan to get the two Great Others to fight, as one spilling the other's blood would make the cold war hot again. The scheme goes off without a hitch, only being stopped when Anton uses a powerful item to rewrite time.
• Nine Dead: The Shooter aka Mr. Greeley is a Papa Wolf who blames nine people of wildly varying degrees of culpability for the death of his son Wade. After two years of preparation, the Shooter kidnaps the nine in quick succession and takes them to an Abandoned Warehouse, forcing them to figure out the reason behind their capture and killing one person every 10 minutes they don't. When one of the captives briefly manages to escape and wrestles Shooter's automatic off him, Shooter reveals he took out the bullets beforehand and shoots the would-be escapee with a spare revolver. In the end, Shooter keeps his word about releasing the hostages, and ultimately has the last laugh when one of the survivors turns on him and her fellow captives, informing her that her crimes have already been filmed and exposed to the public.
• Ninja Zombie (1992): The titular Ninja Zombie was, in life, a skilled martial artist named Jack Chase, who was killed by the forces of the evil Spithrachne. Resurrected by his friend Orlan to serve as a supernatural bodyguard, the Ninja Zombie uses his undead body, ninja skills and simple combat pragmatism to take down dozens of villainous ninjas while saving Orlan from Spithrachne's various schemes. Hiding the Urn of Prometheus inside his chest cavity to keep it from Spithrachne, the Ninja Zombie later steals a motorcycle and crashes into Spithrachne's lair to save his Love Interest Maggie from the villain's clutches. The Ninja Zombie uses the power of the Urn against Spithrachne to destroy him before departing hand in hand with Maggie, leaving the weaselly Orlan behind chained up to die as revenge for Orlan trying to romance Maggie once Jack Chase was dead.
• The Ninth Gate has the tenacious Anti-Hero and his amoral Aloof Ally:
  • Dean Corso is an unscrupulous book dealer known for swindling his clients. Assigned by occultist Boris Balkan to compare his copy of a Satanic text to the other surviving ones, Corso sniffs out the discrepancies in the engravings while ignoring the deaths clearly caused by Balkan, even that of his good friend. Deciding to covet the eldritch powers Balkan seeks, when Balkan's ritual fails and burns him alive Corso uses the complete true engravings and manages to claim ultimate power.
  • The mysterious girl—likely Lucifer or another supernatural being—loves Corso and wishes to make him immortal. Aiding in his quest to research the Satanic text, the girl appears seemingly at random both to save Corso from danger and subtly manipulates the villains to further her lover's knowledge of the text. Purposefully allowing for the other Satanists to kill each other, she consummates her relationship with Corso before disappearing and giving him the materials he needs to covet the book's true power, masterminding the whole plot to get all she desires.
• Nobody: Hutch Mansell is a former "Auditor" who grew tired of his violent lifestyle and decided to start a family. After two robbers invade his house, assault his son, and steal his family's belongings, Hutch gives in to his repressed rage and hunts them down. When he begrudgingly spares them, Hutch instead assaults several Russian thugs on a bus while completely unarmed. Upon finding out he critically injured the brother of Yulian Kuznetsov and discovering Yulian will retaliate, Hutch immediately guides his family to safety before he brutally and single-handedly kills Yulian's assassins sent to his home. He later destroys his home to eradicate any evidence and burns down Yulian's money-laundering operation. Afterwards, Hutch meets with Yulian and calmly warns him to back away from him and his family; when Yulian refuses, he lures Yulian and his thugs into a factory he booby-trapped, where Hutch and his brother and father successful kill Yulian and his cronies.
• No Contest (1995): Cal is the most intelligent and hilarious of the villainous hostage crew. Hacking into the hotel security systems, Cal prevents any outside aid, also designing explosive wristbands for the hostages and camera-attached machine guns to fire upon intruders. Snarking at heroine Sharon Bell when she catches, threatens and restrains him, Cal is incidentally freed by the police and attempts to regain control over the building, ultimately maintaining his characteristic dry sense of humor even while being shot to death.
• No Name on the Bullet: John Gant is a polite but menacing paid assassin notorious for getting his targets to draw on him first, one way or another, once going as far as to falsely imply he raped a target's daughter to trigger the man's fury. He always outdraws them, no matter how great his disadvantage, and is always able to claim self-defense. He prefers not to wound or intimidate anyone who picks a fight with him who he isn't being paid to kill, despite his bleak worldview. Gant feels that almost everyone has enough enemies to justify killing them and that since everyone dies eventually, killing some people a bit sooner isn't too heinous. Living by his own code, Gant refuses to be bribed into abandoning a job. When Gant's gun arm is shattered in a fight with a man he holds a strange respect for, Gant accepts this philosophically, doesn't seek revenge, and declines an offer to treat his injury while there's time by saying "Everything comes to a finish" and then riding away.
• Non-Stop: Tom Bowen is a Marine set to prove the lack of safety in the American airline security after his father's death during the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attack. Taking over a plane with Zach White, he threatens to routinely murder passengers while keeping the heroes at bay and ensures the Transportation Security Administration Agency is informed of the threat presented. Ultimately planning to die when his bomb goes off, his convictions prove his intent truly is to ensure Americans increase security precautions for flights.
• North By Northwest: The Professor is the head of a mysterious government agency, who masterminds the plot of "George Kaplan" to take down enemies of America. The Professor created the fictitious spy George Kaplan to throw off villainous Phillip Vandamm from the true spy in his ranks, Eve Kendall, who the Professor turned years ago and had been using as a mole. Masterfully making Kaplan out to be real with hotel rentals and plane flights, the Professor is delighted when accountant Roger Thornhill is framed as Kaplan, willing to let him die due to false identity to continue the cover up. The Professor ends up turning Thornhill into an asset, faking his death right in front of Vandamm, and then saves the day at the end by arriving in the nick of time with police to capture or kill all of Vandamm's associates after Thornhill and Eve expose them.
• The Northman: Prince Amleth, son of Aurvandil, makes a vow to avenge his father, save his mother and kill his uncle Fjolnir. Becoming a deadly raider, Amleth participates in a series of Viking attacks and learns Fjolnir is a dispossessed chieftain in Iceland. Selling himself into slavery to infiltrate the farm and winning Fjolnir's trust, Amleth begins killing his men to sow psychological terror among his opponents. When he learns his own mother wanted him dead, Amleth later returns to protect his lover and unborn children, facing Fjolnir in a duel in a volcano and earning his way to Valhalla.
• No Sudden Move:
  • Curtis "Curt" Goynes is a streetwise crook seeking to turn a series of coincidences and bad luck to his favor. After deducing that he's being set up on a hostage job, Curt betrays and kills one of his partners and begins scheming against those who hired him, turning their own target Matt Wertz into his own personal stooge. Arranging ambushes and traps to take down mob bosses Frank Capelli and Doug Jones, Curt gains insight on their dealings and learns that Hugh Naismith is in the market for a set of automobile part blueprints. Curt masterfully sets up a deal with Naismith for the blueprints, then goes to Naismith's competitor Mike Lowen to extort even more money out of the two, ultimately handing it all over to mob boss Aldrick Watkins to pay back old debts and enable Curt to walk away from the twisted plots getting exactly what he always wanted: a fresh start, and the $5,000 to do it.
  • Mike Lowen is the head lobbyist representing the four Detroit car companies. When he hears about a catalytic converter being developed, a device that will keep pollution down, he resolves to have the documents on it hidden. When Curtis Goynes and Ronald Russo manage to track it down and sell it back to him, he meets up with them and launches into a very philosophical speech on the nature of race, class and control. He then leaves but his corrupt cops on his payroll manage to recover the money and he ends the film with all the money back plus extra. While the car companies eventually have to install the device down the line, no fines are levied, showing that Mike Lowen was ultimately right: he is in control.
  • Aldrick Watkins is the head of the black mob in Detroit whose code book Curt stole. Wanting revenge, he tries to set up Curt, but the latter manages to wiggle out of that trap. Curt later contacts him wanting to settle his debts. He asks for $5,000 and the chance to leave town. Watkins agrees to help him and even ends up with $125,000 only to later seemingly betray him. While apparently leading him to his death, Watkins is accosted by detective Joe Finney. He bribes the detective with $50,000 and the promise that he'll kill Curt, to keep racial tensions down. However he ends up letting Curt out at the harbor and the promised $5,000, showing that he's a man who keeps his promises.
  • Detective Joe Finney at first seems to be a heroic, blunt cop who wants to get to the bottom of the Wertz's family hostage crisis. Honing in on young Matthew Jr.'s exact wordage of the situation, Finney sees through the family's lies and discovers the truth behind Matt Wertz's dealings, tracking it all back to Curt. Allowing himself to be "bribed" by Watkins to let him have Curt for himself, Finney is soon enough revealed to have been on the take for Mike Lowen the entire film, having used his connections to track down and round up cash from criminals of all sorts and hand it all off to Lowen. Finney never once considers taking a dime of the cash for himself, appreciating his work as Lowen's muscle and continuing to get away with it for years to come.